Solar LED Bistro Lights

Choosing the right solar bistro lights can be tough, there are so many different brands out there. Before we even signed the papers to buy our house I knew that I wanted to hang bistro lights in our little courtyard/patio area. I just had a vision of this area all lit up at night and I thought it would be so magical. Enter Chris Davis, my husband, who found the best option for solar led bistro lights. He’s an Amazon wiz and I knew he would bring my vision to life.

I posted about these over on my stories on Instagram and I had a lot of questions about which ones we went with. I wanted to give it a few days to be sure that I was recommending a good product to y’all first. So thank you so much for your patience. It’s been about 5 days since we’ve had them up. It’s been rather sunny here which is good so we can properly test their charge. The lights Chris decided on were the LED Solar Bistro Lights by Brightec on Amazon.

How Long Do They Stay On?

If they are getting at least 6-8 hours of direct sun on their panels they last about 5-6 hours at night. They come on as soon as it gets dark so you don’t have to worry about setting a timer. We chose the warm white option because I prefer the warm glow of bistro lights as opposed to the bright white. They are LED bulbs that last for 20,000 hours. They also have a 3 year warranty which is amazing!

What Happens on Rainy Days?

Yesterday we had on and off rain with little sun, and even with it not being sunny all day they stayed lit for about 3 hours last night. I was actually surprised! This brand also makes regular plug in lights, but we didn’t have any outdoor outlets that were in close proximity which is why Chris chose the solar option. And it doesn’t cost a thing…just the power of the sun baby!

Another great feature of these lights is that they are shatter proof, so in case they do come loose they will not shatter! We had an electrician come out the other day to do some work on the house and he accidentally got his ladder hung up on one of the strands and brought the whole strand down. None of them broke and they all still work. So see…I did a little break test for you… LOL!

How to Hang Them

You can either get the 27 foot strand with 12 lights or the 48 foot strand with 15 lights. We chose the 48 foot strand with 15 lights. Measure out your space before you start hanging and go from there. We ended up doing a “V” pattern for one of the strands, and then one long strand that ends up in our crepe myrtle trees lining the backside of our screened in porch. We used the clips provided with the panels and then the other end we used these vinyl siding clips. We recommend using 2 clips side by side to hold the weight of the cord. That way you don’t have to make any holes in your siding.

When I hung them in the trees below I just found a branch at a proper height and then wrapped the strand around it to secure it to the branch.

The ones I hung in the yard I used a nail through one of the holes at the top of the light bulb and nailed that to the tree. The other side of the strand with the solar panel I ended up drilling a bracket into the tree and then attached the clip provided onto the bracket since these lights are pretty heavy.